St. John's Wort AND Paxil?

I am in a deep despair after having gotten significant but brief relief from depression from inpatient ECT about a month ago. I am on Paxil which tremendously helps my OCD and GAD but seems to not be helping my depressive episodes which have increased dramatically in frequency over the past two years.

I recently read about St. John's Wort being as effective for depression as Prozac (which made me agitated when I was on it). I asked my psychiatrist if I could supplement my Paxil with St. John's Wort and she said it was not only not a good idea to mix the two but SJW was useless anyway. Has anyone tried it and found it "useless" or did it help you? I feel so horrible right now I feel like drinking wine to numb a few of the hours and I know my psychiatrist, or most anyone really, would object even more to that self remedy.

One other thing. If you used SJW, did it make you more photosensitive? I am red-haired and burn very easily already- will I always need sunscreen working outdoors or on a bicycle ride?

i was on st johns wort for an extended period of time. i have blonde hair but i didnt find that i was burning in the sun or anything about what you were talking about before. for a while it calmed me down but it became useless eventually because my body is just way too used to it (i was taking it pretty frequently). although it calmed me, i was on it during school exams and i began to find that i couldnt come up with idaes for my writing when in the actual exam because the SJW slowed my brain and thinking and my imagination kind of died to a degree. You get a little bit slower and less sparky and yeah, thoughts are kind of blocked which is an important thing to consider. All in all, it is not very strong, and it is certainly not as strong as prozac, which would have a far more dramatic effect on your life and personality. Thats why it doesnt even demand a prescription. in fact, depending on where you live, you can even just pick it up at your local supermarket, so its easily accessible. I hope this information is useful. unfortunately i am unable to offer advice on mixing it with your other drug because i wasn't mixing it with a prescribed anti-depressent. take care.

You shouldn't mix SJW with any SSRI like Paxil for 2 weeks but since SJW is a very mild MAOI it wont kill you it'll just make you feel sick.
I was on it for a year in normal doses (3x300mg day) and didn't do anything for me until i took 4 300mg pills 3 times a day, it took my anxiety/fear of everything away and nothing happened when i quit cold turkey so good luck and i hope this post helped!

I am in a deep despair after having gotten significant but brief relief from depression from inpatient ECT about a month ago. I am on Paxil which tremendously helps my OCD and GAD but seems to not be helping my depressive episodes which have increased dramatically in frequency over the past two years.

I recently read about St. John's Wort being as effective for depression as Prozac (which made me agitated when I was on it). I asked my psychiatrist if I could supplement my Paxil with St. John's Wort and she said it was not only not a good idea to mix the two but SJW was useless anyway. Has anyone tried it and found it "useless" or did it help you? I feel so horrible right now I feel like drinking wine to numb a few of the hours and I know my psychiatrist, or most anyone really, would object even more to that self remedy.

One other thing. If you used SJW, did it make you more photosensitive? I am red-haired and burn very easily already- will I always need sunscreen working outdoors or on a bicycle ride?

Thanks! :sadwave:

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doctors are required by law and the board of directors at Scientology to
poo poo anything that isn't manufactured by Glaxo Wellcome or Lilly.
Scientologists got enough trouble with shrinks helping people without
a bunch of upstart self helpers curing themselves natually

SJW works best inSTEAD of the rat poison the docs give ya, not with. be careful mixing.

also, a serious regimen of carefully balanced B complex vitamins is really good for
all things related to the nervous system, or central nervous system. study up on
that a bit too though. because, taking too much Thiamine for example can cause
depletion of other B vitamins. or too much or little of any of the combo makes it weird.
it's synergystic stuff. I have no idea WHY, but almost all B complex comes with 50mgs
of everything. the result is staggeringly conflicting RDA of each seperate component.
but eh...all in all a garden variety B complex prolly wouldn't hurt at all. especially with
some extra niacin.

Thanks very much black dove, Punch and HappyAZaCLaM. :smile: HappyAZaCLaM, I do take some vitamins (I used to be fanatical when I still cared about more things) so I'll try a B-complex/niacin but if I stopped taking Paxil in order to try St. John's Wort my OCD would probably get out of hand.